This book was wonderful. Cosy and comforting with books and tea and just the right amount of danger. This is the sort of book to fall in love with. Reading this book as an audiobook was a delight and made it ten times more cosy. I would also definitely recommend curling up with a blanket and a cup of tea while reading in whatever format you pick.

The characters truly felt like my friends by the end of it. It’s definitely the sort of book I can see myself going back to. It also looks like it’s going to be a series, so that is really exciting as well. The bookshop truly felt like a magic place as well. It really felt like somewhere I would like to go and have a cup of tea and peruse a book or two! It was perfect.

The more dangerous plots were also brilliant. The constant threat of the queen finding Reyna was always there in the background and the subplot with the dragons also gave a nice bit of action in the centre of the book.

I cannot wait for the next book and to see more from these characters.

This was so fun? I get why it was Thalia book of the month. Please we need more cozy fantasy!!

I loved the writing and the language, not to easy not to hard

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, I had to stop around the 23% mark of the books I’m not saying it’s a bad book, I’m saying it’s not what I thought it would be.
Firstly, it’s not a cozy fantasy. There’s a lot of action happening in these first pages. Just because there’s a tea shop and books involved it doesn’t mean that automatically it’s a cozy fantasy. I didn’t feel cozy reading it. There’s a lot of magic involved in the small things of the book, like planting flowers and fixing walls.

Secondly, I didn’t care about the characters. Where I stopped, Kianthe does a thing that I didn’t like at all, especially since she says that she is in love with Reyna. Reyna is hurt and Kianthe runs away from her because she’s scared. If one on my loved one was hurt, I would stay next to her/him even if I was scared. I couldn’t care for them and I couldn’t see the chemistry between them.

But it is what it is. I don’t like reading books just for the sake of it and I won’t finish a book if I don’t enjoy it. I will not continue the trilogy.

This is definitely a me problem. The cozy aspect I loved but the characters just didn’t feel right to me and the relationships felt forced

I think this is entirely on me. While I enjoy cozy fantasy from time to time, I think you really need to nail the characters as well as their relationships and interactions with others and I didn't feel it. Also too much action right from the beginning to call it cozy tbh.

Kianthe the Arcandor, a powerful mage meets Reyna when visiting Queen Tillaine.
Reyna is one of the Queen's guards but after a near miss with an assassin she decided she is done with the danger and and putting her life at risk for an ungrateful ruler.
Kianthe has just been waiting a chance like this, a chance for her and Reyna to finally live their own lives.
Reyna wants a tea shop and Kianthe wants to be surrounded by books so starts their joint venture of New leaf tomes and tea.
They soon settle into life in the town of Tawney, a dragon country near the frozen wastes.
They make new friends, their business is going well and there is even the hint of adventure when Kianthe is tasked with finding some dragon eggs!
Never really read what is termed "cosy fantasy" before, high fantasy, YA etc so this is a new one on me and I loved it.
Still has magic and Dragons so its all good to me.
Love this author, I adored her characters and got so immersed in the story and thoroughly enjoyed the little extra at the back of Reyna and Kianthe's first meeting and date.
Can't wait to read the sequel.

A cozy fantasy that does a really good job of straddling the line of cozy and high fantasy.

A true fantasy world with Griffons, Dragons, Mages, and an evil queen with high stakes.
A cozy world with books, tea, close-knit community, and a sweet f/f romance who actually communicate with each other!

4.5 Stars - I will be picking up book 2.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rebecca Thorne for the ARC.
This was a lovely story of a couple trying to find a place where they can have their own peace in spite the expectations and responsibilities they might have shared previously. It was romantic, at times full of action and so much fun. I enjoyed it very much.

This is everything I wanted Legends and Lattes to be: cosy, funny, romantic, but with enough going on to keep my attention. I looove that this follows an already established couple, who were absolutely wonderful together. It was lovely to see them grow even closer together, and there were so many sweet moments. Enough happened to make this a fun, engaging read, but every time it was lighthearted and funny enough to keep the cosy atmosphere. I'll definitely be reading the next installment as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc!

Loved this! Both FMCs were unreal. Fantasy/magical realism with amazing representation is unheard of. I’ve never read a book like this. It was good to read such a good cosy fantasy that wasn’t too high stakes but still moved at a good pace. Some parts were slower than others and I did feel like I read it slightly slower but that was more me than the book.

Again, the representation is this book was top notch. Everything about this book was done really well. I think this level of representation should be in every book to mimic how broad society is.

I will definitely read more of what this author puts out!

Guarding the Queen is all Reyna has ever known. It’s the family business, and it was assumed from birth that she would follow in the footsteps of her mother. The thought of doing something else hadn’t crossed her mind until she met Kianthe, the Arcandor, the infamous Mage of Ages. Falling in love with Kianthe was a risk, and the two sneaked midnight rendezvous afraid that the Queen, not known for her mercy, would find out.

After a particularly nasty assassination attempt leaves Reyna realising just how expendable she is to the Queen despite her loyalty, Reyna decides to accept the offer Kianthe made to her – to run away and set up a bookshop with a tearoom.

Of course, Queen Tilaine is never going to just let Reyna go. Finding the seemingly perfect place in Tawney, a town with uncertain borders far away from the Queen’s court, the couple set up shop in an old bandit hideout. But life was never going to be quiet for the Mage of Ages, and Tawney, well, it’s a town that has more happening than they first realised, including dragon attacks.

Can Reyna and Kianthe help the town, avoid the Queen’s guards, and get their business off the ground, all while working out their relationship as a proper couple?

I picked up Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne because the title practically begged me to, and the synopsis backed it up. I was expecting a cosy fantasy that would be fun and interesting and was blown away by how good it was. Thorne’s writing is brilliant. From her characters to her plot twists and her world building, her writing was a delight to read and I love her style. Her unique narrative style fits well with the cosy fantasy genre, and I loved the way that the narrative slipped into omniscient narration at times, commenting on how Renya and Kianthe reacted to a situation later. For example, when they tell a necessary white lie to save a teenager from a life of crime, the narration mentions that it’s something that they never dissuade him of his belief.

Speaking of said teenager, the whole bandit subplot was such a laugh, and I enjoyed the way that Thorne seamlessly blended humour with romance and fantasy in this book. While this cosy fantasy definitely comes under the romantasy genre, there is a lot more happening other than just the romance. Also while there are a lot of displays of care, snuggles, hugs and kisses, that is the only intimacy shown on the page, although there are plenty of hints in the dialogue that more is happening off the page. I’ve seen other reviewers referring to the flirting scenes as being a lot more involved.

I don’t know if the author has reworked the book for this Tor reprint in 2024 or if other people have a much lower tolerance for scenes like this. But I did not find anything to be “inappropriate for a workplace”, especially one that is run by a couple that is clearly in love.

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea also has great mental health representation, which was a nice surprise, and I was very impressed with how well these scenes were written. There is a focus on anxiety, intrusive thoughts and recovering from abusive and toxic situations.

What stops this book from being a full five stars for me is that I realised a bit of a big plot hole. Reyna is running for her life from the Queen, and a huge deal is made about how dangerous it is for her… and yet she doesn’t change her appearance at all? It also takes a while for both her and Kianthe to realise that Reyna running around with her Queen’s guard sword probably isn’t the smartest idea! Everything else in the book fits together very well, and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea has one of the most daringly funny endings I’ve read in a long time. But that bit let it down for me, and once I realised it, I couldn’t stop going back to it.

I fell completely in love with the world and characters that Thorne has created, and can’t wait to continue the adventures of Renya and Kianthe in the next Tomes & Tea book!

This was a fun read, but I feel it's a bit misleading that this was marketed as cosy fantasy. Yes, there are parts of the plot that clearly fit the genre: Reyna and Kianthe opening their coffee/book shop together and everything that went into this venture definitely qualified. But there is also a significant level of higher stakes at play: Reyna escaping the vengeful queen, Kianthe fulfilling her responsibilities as the most powerful mage, and saving an entire village from dragons. A significant chunk of the book is also spent on Reyna and Kianthe taking turns to get injured or burnt out and requiring extensive care.
Overall, I enjoyed the characters, but wasn't blown away by the novel because I'd gone in wanting cosy fantasy, which I felt was only delivered in part.

Thank you very much to Netgalley, the publisher and author for accepting my request to read and review this one early!

Firstly, I have realised that unless its second chance romance, I do not like book where we are following characters already in a relationship. It relies so much on telling us that they are in love without SHOWING US. I did not feel the butterflies with these characters, I was being told their feeling, I did not FEEL their feelings or their romance at all.

Second, this is not a cozy fantasy in my opinion. Aside from the overly copied (and yet poorly done) Legends and Lattes and Bookshops and Bonedust elements, this book was actually following a rather grand scale plot (evil queens and dragon threats). I felt as though the cozy elements of this book were hurried, and therefore did not actually have any COZY affect. Saying "oh theres tea and books and plants and a fireplace and a cute couple" does not actually result in "cozy".

Thirdly, I felt as though this book was highly unrealsitic in terms of the actual shop element. For one, how would a queens guard ever actually have time to pratice cooking and baking. Two, how come they could afford to build the entire shop and hire staff and stock it with books and tea and other food etc. And then how is it that thier business thrives from day one in a tiny small village.

I think other cozy books like Legends and Lattes does a much better job of actually showing how the shop runs and how it costs alot and the lack of customers at first etc.

Lastly, this book had two persepctives but let me tell you, they had zero difference. I could not tell them apart and every chapter I forgot who we were following. Neither character has a distinct personality.

Overall my biggest issue was simply the pacing and the plot. I was genuinly so freaking bored reading this. Getting 46% into a book and still not being interested in anything, having nothing super intriguing happen, is such a slog.

While I am super grateful to have been accepted to read and review this book early on Netgalley, this was sadly not for me.

This book, is not cozy. Did I like it? Yeah. Would I recommend? Yeah! to a particular kind of person. I did feel like it was a little too much like Legends and Lattes, however it had a lot of its own elements that didn’t make me feel like I was reading the same book too much. I enjoyed the characters. This is a 3.75 for me, which is still high in my books. I enjoyed it, but as I stated earlier. I wanted cozy and this didn’t really deliver on that. WAAAAAAY too many high stakes.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

DNF at 48%

Don't get me wrong, I love a good cosy read but this felt like such a blatant knock off of Legends and Lattes that I really struggled to take it seriously. The characters were flat and lacking in personality, everything just conveniently solved itself in record time and the author couldn't decide if it was slow stakes or action packed.

This was a fun story that was less cozy fantasy than I expected and more regular fantasy. This has intriguing worldbuilding and magic systems but some of the other bits felt a little unrealistic. Still, I had a good time and enjoyed the read!

This is a sweet story and a fairly low-stress read. A bit too low-stress for my tastes, perhaps, as everything seemed to resolve quickly and easily. Then again, cosy fantasy is not my normal genre, so it may appeal more to readers looking for kind of lighter read. 3.5*

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

DNF at around 50% unfortunately, although I might pick it up again one day.

I couldn't quite get into this - I loved the concept of it but honestly, neither of the main characters were that interesting to me and I couldn't quite get into the plot either. I know it's meant to be 'cosy' but some of the parts where they're setting up the tea shop are boring rather than cosy.

It's a shame because the description sounded great and I really thought I'd love it.

Inspired by Legends & Lattes, this book is a cosy fantasy with a sapphic love story, a bookshop / tea room, magic, dragons, griffons and found-family. It's like sinking into a warm bath and feeling utterly content. Can't wait for book 2 as Bobbie and Serina already sound fantastic.

This was a really sweet yet magickal story, it was cute and quaint, but also had a gritty side which I loved. It was a beautiful love between 2 ladies that just wanted a peaceful life, and what more could you want with tea and a bookshop. Oh and plants!!! Totally wonderful.

Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.